Le Corps de mon ennemi (1976) - film review

François Leclerc returns to his home, an industrial town in northern France, after serving a seven year prison sentence for a murder he did not commit.  He recalls the events which led up to his trial, beginning with his romance with Gilberte Liegeard, daughter of a powerful industrialist, and the spectacular opportunities for social climbing this offered him. Before his fall from grace, Leclerc was a popular figure, managing an exclusive night club.  But he had some dangerous enemies, who implicated him in a double murder.  Seven years on, Leclerc is determined to have his revenge...

In stark contrast to the crime thrillers with which Belmondo is better known, Le Corps de mon ennemi has an almost total absence of action and physical displays of violence.  Director Henri Verneuil was keen that his star actor should appear in a very different kind of film to say, Peur sur la ville, to show his qualities as an actor instead of his skill as an action stunt man.

The role played by Belmondo in this film is certainly amongst his most challenging, involving the actor playing the same character in two time frames, separated by seven years.  Verneuil was loath to have his actor made up to show the difference in his age, so he used a simple dramatic device (which even found its way into the dialogue): when you look back into your past, you see yourself as you are now, not as you were.

Constructing a coherent narrative around flashbacks is not an easy thing to pull off, but the approach works well in this film, thanks to some accomplished editing and careful use of sets to depict the past and the present.  The past which François Leclerc remembers in colourful, new and friendly, in sorry contrast to the cold, weary isolation he now sees around him.   The film was shot in and around the northern French town of Lille, the monolithic textile factories providing a suitable backdrop, emphasising the isolation and vulnerability of the film’s central character.

Whilst the film works reasonably well as a crime drama, it does not quite live up to Verneuil’s vision of a quality psychological crime thriller.  The absence of suspense and dramatic intensity robs the film of impact, which the quality of the script (from Michel Audiard) and acting do not quite make up for.  However, it does offer Belmondo the opportunity to give one – or rather, two – of his best performances, in an interesting variation on the polar genre.

As Verneuil and Belmondo expected, the film was far from being a commercial success.  Compared with their earlier collaboration, Peur sur la ville, it was a disappointment, which failed to attract the French cinema going public.  After 13 weeks of exploitation in Paris, the film sold only around half a million tickets.  It is, despite that, a respectable entry in both Verneuil and Belmondo’s filmographies.

© James Travers 2001

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